6 Ways that Meditation Can Be Used as a Tool of Mindset Coaching. Meditation is one of the pillars of the Untame Your Life program.
Below I discuss 6 powerful benefits of meditation.
- Learn to understand yourself better
- Trust yourself to make decisions
- Be more intentional about how want to show up in the world.
- Decrease self doubt, increase self-confidence.
- Gain mental freedom.
- Learn to hear your inner voice and distinguish it from your ego voice.
- Acceptance of unpredictability and discomfort.
- Access inner calm
The American poet Walt Whitman said:
Re-examine all that you have been told… and dismiss that which insults your soul.
1. Learn to understand yourself better
Meditation is one of the best ways to reassess what we think we know. And what we believe – about ourselves and the world.
When I was younger, I would feel so shameful if I thought that someone did not like me. But the truth is, I had absolutely no idea what exactly I wanted people to like about me because I didn’t really know who or what I wanted to be. Meditation is the tool I use to “learn myself” and to find out how I want to show up in the world.
Then, when I need to make a decision, I am more aware of what I want and why.
2. Learn to hear your inner voice and distinguish it from your ego voice.
In our fast paced world that tells us “do more,” and continues to produce more and more information accessible 24 hours a day, it becomes harder and harder to hear our inner voice. Have you stopped to pay attention to this inner voice?
The inner voice is beyond emotions. It is intuition, calm, quiet, peaceful, and comes from the heart or the gut. In contrast, the ego voice— is loud, negative, punishing, critical, and angry. It tells stories—usually over and over again. It comes from the mind in the head. Meditation allows you to start to hear the quiet, gentle, inner voice when you start to pay attention.
3. Be more intentional about how want to show up in the world.
Meditation provides the time and space to hear your inner voice. This gives an opportunity to assess questions like:
What do I truly believe? What is worth fighting for? What is important to me and why? Who is important to me and why? What is worth my attention?
Often, I combine journaling with the meditation to assist this process.
4. Trust yourself to make decisions.
When coupled with mindset coaching, meditation is an excellent tool to build self-trust. Most of my clients, while generally confident in business and personal life, do not trust the decisions that they make.
Typically there are 2 reasons why decision making is difficult.
- Many decisions that you make will disappoint friends, family, and community that do not understand our choices. Once you are clear about what you want and learn to understand yourself better, you will be more confident about your decisions.
- Every decision has a consequence. When decision making is difficult it means that there are two difficult choices. This means that no matter which choice is made, there is some sort of compromise that you have to live with. This can be uncomfortable. Consequences are not easy but the more you are clear about why you are making a decision AND willing to practice decision making—the easier it gets.
Decision making is like a muscle that must be trained. Meditation is an excellent way to help build that muscle.
Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.
Chinese proverb
5. Decrease self-doubt and increase confidence.
The more you can understand your choices and what drives you the more you can trust yourself. A daily meditation practice is extremely beneficial for decreasing self-doubt. As the nervous system relaxes and the brain softens, there’s an increase in focus and clarity.
6. Gain Mental Freedom.
There is a lot of noise in the head that is recycled every day. In a National Science Foundation study, of the thousands of daily thoughts 80% were negative, and 95% were exactly the same repetitive thoughts as the day before. I think of my mind as a limited box in my head— recycling old thoughts and beliefs. One of the beneficial side effects of meditation is that it opens space in the mind and in the body.
This can increase both confidence and clarity making it easier to make decisions and move out of your comfort zone because the mind can relax and expand awareness.
7. Inner calm.
Inner calm allows you to be more present for yourself and others.
This can be a result of meditation because the mind can start to relax and there is a sense of more spaciousness, less tension. For me, inner calm comes when I trust myself to make decisions and I am willing to be uncomfortable (a natural byproduct of decision making – because every decision has a consequence and these are not always convenient or appreciated by others).
Inner calm can accentuate inner strength, more patience, better sleep, and better focus.
These are all benefits that can be gained through a daily meditation practice.
